Vehicle state detection

ABSTRACT

This application describes the detection of the state of a vehicle and various actions to be performed based on the detected state. The detection of the state is done by a portable device, carried by the user, which uses onboard sensors to receive operations indicators, and uses rules in a predetermined criteria to determine the operational state of the vehicle. Various methods are described for detecting the states of the vehicle and applications based upon it.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/703,761, entitled “Vehicle State Detection,” filed on Feb. 10, 2010,which claims the priority of U.S. provisional application Ser. No.61/151,508, titled “A method for detecting start and stop of a vehicle,”filed on Feb. 10, 2009, all of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the detection of the state of a vehicle by aportable device carried by a user and the various actions taken upon thedetection of the state.

2. Description of Related Art

People often forget where they park their cars at shopping centers,movie theaters, airports and parking lots in general. It would be veryuseful to have a portable device that automatically remembers where thecar is parked and can tell the user, upon request, where the car isparked and also provide directions to the parked car.

Prior art has discussed using key fobs (U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,258,6,392,592) in the car to know when the car has stopped, but this canonly work with new cars who in the future may have this system.Furthermore, the user interface to provide guidance back to the car isvery limited. Thirdly, copies of keys will not have the locationdetection system.

Yet other alternative includes getting signal from the car to providethe notice that the car has stopped and also may be the locationinformation (U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,592). Some signals include wirelesssignals, change in current, opening of the door, etc for example (U.S.Pat. No. 6,650,999).

All of these have the problem of requiring a tight coupling with thecar, such that the system installation is cumbersome. Furthermore, ifthe user drives a car which does not have the same system pre-installed(e.g. rented car), the user cannot use the system.

Also it is not possible to directly use GPS in the above application todetect whether a car is parked or moving because GPS velocity detectioncannot be directly used to distinguish between a user walking slowly anda vehicle being driven slowly. Furthermore, the GPS signal may notalways be available.

Another related problem deals with blocking certain actions by a user ifthe user is moving or speeding, for example, blocking texting on cellphones while the user is moving in a car. Using GPS once again has thedisadvantage that it cannot be used to detect when a user is walking ora vehicle is being driven slowly. Furthermore, the GPS signal may notalways be available. And taking repeated GPS measurements is expensivein terms of battery consumption, and for this application, veryfrequently repeated measurements would have to be taken in order totimely block certain actions. The battery drain would make GPSessentially useless for this application. These disadvantages of GPSmake it unusable in detecting a vehicle's operational state for thevarious applications described here.

Another related application is the payment of metered parking. Thecurrent state of the art requires the user to park the car and walk to ameter and pay the meter; some systems, in addition, require the user toreceive a receipt and display the receipt on the dashboard. This manualpayment of metered parking is too cumbersome for the user. There havebeen systems tried in some areas that allow users to pay by phone,however, even these are based on a manual process, in that they requirethe user to remember to place the calls, enter meter numbers and, insome systems, remember to call again when the vehicle leaves the parkingspot.

Another related application is trading parking spaces where members of agroup who have parked at a parking spot, inform the other members whenthey are about to leave their spot, so that other members get a chanceto park at the spot. However, this application still requires manualintervention where the user has to use his cellphone to inform the othermembers.

SUMMARY

We propose a novel method of detecting the stopping and starting of acar using an accelerometer in a portable device. Vehicles that use thecombustion engine always have the engines running at a minimum rotationspeed. That is even if the car is not moving, but idling, the engine isrotating at around 800 rpm or around 13 cycles/second. However, if aperson is outside the car or if the engine has stopped (i.e the car isparked) the human generated vibrations (e.g. due to walking, shaking,etc) are much less frequent and much less persistent.

We can use these different characteristics of the two states toautomatically detect which state we are in and then use a GPS or otherlocation measurement system to measure the location of the stopped car.The two states are 1) ‘engine is on’ and 2) ‘engine is off’. The firststate is when the user is sitting in a car with the engine on and thecar is either moving or stationary whereas the second state is when theuser is outside the car or is in the car but the engine is off. Thesolution proposed here does not have the above mentioned drawbacks inrequiring complex installation, or tightly coupling of the detectionmethod to the vehicle, or a need for GPS to identify the operationalstate of the vehicle.

We propose the use of accelerometer to detect the differences invibrations. The accelerometer can also be used to measure accelerationsto help determine the operational state of the vehicle. A variation onthe invention can also be used to detect the operation state of anelectric vehicle by using sensors like accelerometer and using patternrecognition to recognize the different states.

In another embodiment, the portable device using onboard sensors detectsthat the car is moving or moving at a certain speed which triggerscertain actions, for example, blocking certain actions on the part ofthe user or notifying a third party.

For example, if a truck speeds over a certain predefined speed then acentral truck operation center may be notified of the speed. This mayhelp truck companies manage their exposure to traffic tickets andincrease the safety of their drivers without compromising the privacy oftheir location information. This can be done using vibration sensors,like accelerometer, coupled with thresholding or using patternrecognition models to recognize the vehicle state. Speed can also bedetected using accelerometer to integrate acceleration over time. Alsotexting can be disabled when the vehicle is detected to be in a movingstate.

Another use is for certain applications to be automatically turned on oroff or adjusted based on the operational state of the vehicle. Forexample a music player on the portable device can adjust its volumebased on whether the car is moving at a certain speed or stopped sincethe noise in a moving car can be greater than in a stopped car.

We have previously mentioned the disadvantages of using GPS to detectthe state of the car (i.e. it cannot distinguish between walking anddriving at slow speeds, lack of GPS availability in places, excessivebattery consumption for frequent measurments), however, theaccelerometer does not suffer from these drawbacks. The accelerometerused as a vibration detector or an acceleration detector or moregenerally as a change in force detector can distinguish between thedifferent characteristics of being in a slowly moving car versuswalking. Furthermore, the accelerometer is always available and sensingunlike GPS whose signals may not be available in certain areas (e.g.urban canyons). Also, relative to usage of location services such asGPS, very small amounts of battery power is used by an accelerometer

We describe parking application that allows a user's portable device todetect when the state of the car is parked in a parking spot and toautomatically pay for parking. Also we describe an application thatallows for automatically informing group members when a parking spot isavailable in a parking spot trading scheme.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a portable device for taking action based on thestate of the associated vehicle.

FIG. 2 illustrates using vibration sensors to determine if a vehicle isin an ‘engine is on’ or ‘engine is off’ state.

FIG. 3 illustrates the training of pattern recognition models to detectvehicle state.

FIG. 4 illustrates the recognition of vehicle state using patternrecognition models.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method of blocking user requested operations basedon the state of the vehicle.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method of performing an action based on the stateof the vehicle.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for automatically remembering the locationof a parked car and finding the car later.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method of determining if the vehicle is a bus or acar.

FIG. 9 illustrates a method for determining if the vehicle is a train ornot.

FIG. 10 illustrates a method for determining if the user is a driver inthe car using kinematics.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method for determining when to charge for meteredparking.

FIG. 12 illustrates a method for detecting vehicle state to aid intrading parking spaces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Apparatus

FIG. 1 illustrates the portable device apparatus carried by anindividual to determine if certain actions should be performed. Thedecision to perform an action is based on determining the operationalstate of a vehicle surrounding the portable device. This determinationof the operational state of the vehicle is based upon an onboard sensoron the device receiving signals from the environment and converting themto operation indicators, for example, a vibration sensor may measureforces over time (i.e. the signals) and convert them into number ofvibrations measured per second (operation indicators). and using rulesset in a predetermined criteria to decide upon the state. An example ofa vibrational sensing device is an accelerometer.

In unit 1, an onboard sensor receives signals from the environment andconverts them into operation indicators. Examples of signals from theenvironment include vibrations, acceleration, change in forces, noise,etc. Note that sensors do not receive and are not responsible to receivedata from a central place, for example weather information, trafficinformation or location information (e.g. via GPS). There are datareceiving units which do receive such data generated from a centralplace but they do not generate operation indicators. The data receivingdevice may or may not be part of the portable device, however, werequire that a sensor that converts sensory signals to operationindicators be part of the portable device.

The operation indicators, generated in unit 1, are forwarded to theoperation indicator monitor unit (unit 2) which continuously monitorsand collects the operation indicators over time from at least onesensor. The operation indicator monitor unit may periodically forwardthe operation indicators to unit 3, the operational state detector unit.This unit uses pre-determined criteria which are a set of rules to helpdetermine the operational state of the vehicle. The rule can be assimple as a threshold or can be more complex involving patternrecognition models where the models are created based on some trainingdata and then are used in real-time for pattern recognition andidentification if the rules are satisfied.

We always associate an operational state of the vehicle with theportable device carried by the user. Example of states when the user andportable device are in a vehicle include ‘engine is on’ state, ‘engineis off’ state, the vehicle is moving state, and vehicle is stationarystate, etc. If the user is not inside any vehicle then we call the stateof the associated vehicle as a stationary state even though at thismoment the user is not inside a vehicle. We could have called this as a‘no car’ state or empty state, however, lumping it with a stationarystate helps with the description and exposition of the variousapplications. This has some intuitive support, in that if the user isnot in the vehicle then there is no vehicle motion and the operationalstate can be considered as stationary. There can be other states of theassociated vehicle beyond the ones listed above.

The operational state determined by unit 3 are sent to unit 4 whichdecides what actions should be taken based on current and pastoperational states, and may be including other factors. The actions mayhave been fixed or configured by the users or a third party. Once theactions are decided upon then unit 5 performs the actions.

The apparatus may be a dedicated device or it may run as a software on ageneral purpose device, for example, the cellphone, pda, or smartphone.

Using Thresholding to Determine State

FIG. 2 illustrates how thresholding of vibration measurements can beused to determine the operational state of the vehicle. The sameapproach can be used to identify acceleration and speed relatedthresholds.

The device can wake up, for example, every 30 seconds and take ameasurement for 2 seconds, for example, and decide on the state of thevehicle. Inside a vehicle with engine on, the device would see around 26vibrational events (cycling through a peak and valley) if the combustionengine is on and running at 800 RPM in the 2 seconds whereas outside thecar or inside a vehicle with engine is off, the number of vibrations aremuch less since they are primarily due to the user moving or walking.

In step 1, the onboard vibration sensor on the individual's portabledevice receives vibrations from the environment. In step 2, the devicedecides if the total vibrations in the 2 seconds number more than a setthreshold (e.g. 15 per 2 seconds). If so then, in step 3, the state ofthe associated vehicle is declared to be in the engine is on state. Ifit is less than the threshold then, in step 4, the associated vehicle isdeclared to be in the ‘engine is off’ state. The above only illustratessimply how vibrations and simple thresholding can be used to determinethe associated vehicles state, however, various variations are possibleto adjunct parameters and information like the strength of thevibrations, averaging or filtering techniques to suppress noise.

Using Pattern Recognition

Instead of rule based decision algorithms (e.g. thresholding above) orin addition, we can use pattern recognition techniques like hiddenmarkov models and neural networks to help determine the state of thevehicle. These techniques are used in various different fields includingspeech recognition, face recognition and handwriting recognition.

In speech recognition, the speech signal is sampled, digitized andfeatures are extracted. Thus over period, e.g. every 10 msec, a featurevector is presented. In the first phase training data is collected andlabeled and presented to the training algorithm to create models forwords. So various utterances of the word “Yes” are collected and labeledand presented to the training algorithm to create a hidden markov modelfor the word “Yes”. Similarly, utterances for “No” are used to create amodel for the word. Furthermore, a background model may be trained forbackground noise or other words.

Then in the second phase, the hidden markov models created in phase 1are used by a recognition algorithm to determine if presented speechwhich has been featurized is the word “Yes”, “No”, or background noise.Instead of hidden markov models, other pattern recognition techniquesare also used, including neural networks.

We can use similar techniques to determine the state of the vehicle.FIG. 3 illustrates how a pattern recognition model can be trained forthe purposes of recognizing the state of a vehicle. In step 1 vibrationsmeasured with vehicle's engine on and running are presented as a seriesin time (e.g. every second) along with the “engine is on” state labelapplied to it in step 2. These are presented to the pattern recognitionmodel training algorithm which trains the models in step 3 and outputsthe trained model in step 4. Similarly, vibration measurements are takenwhen the vehicles engine is not on or the portable device is not in avehicle (e.g. individual is walking with the device). This is labeled as“vehicle is stationary” state and “engine is off” state and presented tothe training algorithm to train the “engine is off” model which is alsooutput in step 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates how the operation state of the vehicle is detectedusing pattern recognition. In step 3 the pattern recognition model isrunning on the portable device and is fed the trained recognition modelfor each state to be detected in step 2. Also in step 1 the onboardsensor of the portable device is taking vibration measurements andpresenting it to the recognition algorithm as a time series. The patternrecognition algorithm outputs the recognized state in step 4.

Although we have described the rule based and pattern recognitionmethods of vehicle state determination using vibrations, other signalsand onboard sensors can easily be substituted, also with any adjunctdata or information stored or received. We could use acceleration timeseries, as measured by an accelerometer, to determine if the car is in astationary state or in a moving state. More generally we could measureforces acting on the device to determine if the car is moving orstationary.

The reason we are able to train and differentiate using patternrecognition techniques is that human's walking (with a portable device)have a different characteristics with respect to velocity andaccelerations patterns when compared to movements of vehicles. Forexample humans typically walk couple of miles per hour whereas carspeeds, if moving, are typically much greater. This can be used todetermine if the car has parked. Furthermore, the person sits at certainheight in the car, but walks at a different height when walking outsidethe car. This can be also used to determine when the user transitionsfrom walking to a parked car and from a parked car to walking. Theaccelerations in the z axis may be greater while walking than whensitting passively in a car.

Also the determination that the user is outside the vehicle (i.e.stationary state) may be delayed until the pattern recognition enginehas enough operation indicator samples to make a decision; that isduring this time state of the vehicle is in an undiscovered state.During this time, repeated location measurements can be used to helpdetermine the location of the vehicle where the user got off the car.Eventually, when the pattern recognition discovers the state changed atsome earlier time to the stationary state then the earlier recordedlocations can be used to pinpoint the location of the state change.Later on, the entire location path taken by the user can be presented tothe user if so requested.

The use of acceleration as a sensor and pattern recognition with delayedvehicle state determination with recording of various location in therecent path travelled is especially useful in two cases. First, anelectric car would not be generating similar vibrations as a vehiclewith a combustion engine. In these case acceleration with patternrecognition would be necessary. Secondly, even a vehicle with acombustion engine may linger slowly before stopping completely and itmay be difficult to determine early on when the vehicle stopped. Thisdetermination may be delayed. Hence, recording location as the carlingers will allows us to pinpoint later on which exact location the carchanged to a stationary state and enabling user to locate the positionof the car automatically. And even if we cannot pinpoint the exactlocation point, we can record all the locations points traversed in therecent path starting with the point from which we are sure that the useris out side of the vehicle, and perhaps present them on a map, and letthe user determine which point to return to or just to guide userthrough recorded points until he reaches the destination.

Performing Action Based on the Vehicle State

In this embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 6, the request for an operationon the device by the user and the state of the vehicle is used todetermine if an action should be performed by the device. The user,carrying the portable device, tries to perform an operation on thedevice in step 1 of FIG. 6. In step 2, the device checks if therequested operation is a special one. If it is not then the operation isallowed to proceed normally in step 3, else the device checks if thevehicle is moving in step 4, for example using the accelerometer asdescribed previously. If the device determines that the vehicle is notmoving then the operation proceeds normally in step 5, otherwise alongwith the requested operation the device performs additional action oractions in step 6.

Many different actions can be performed by the device includingnotifying third parties. For example, a truck driver, making a call on acellphone while speeding, may trigger a notice to the central truckoperations center. Another example, is for a parent to be informed ifthe teenager driving the car is texting. Furthermore, actions to beperformed can be defined in a profile, and even by the user. Thirdparties can also define the actions to perform and can also define thestate to be detected. For example, one state that can be defined is:whether on a specified road, if the user is going over a specified speed(e.g. the posted speed limit).

The method of determining a moving state can be based on anaccelerometer, as previously described, or other alternatives and can berule based or based on pattern recognition techniques. For some sensors,the moving or stationary states in this and previous section can besubstituted with ‘engine is on’ and ‘engine is off’ states.

Another application is for the portable device to automatically andtransparently to the user perform some action based on the operationalstate of the vehicle. For example, upon detection of the vehicle notmoving, a portable device that also plays music can lower the volume.Similarly, the portable device can detect the speed of the vehicle andadjust the volume to be more or less since a faster moving vehiclegenerates greater noise. Another use of this may be to perform certainapplications, like receiving traffic information, only when the vehicleis in a moving state or in the ‘engine is on’ state. This will save oncommunication resources and battery life compared to always receivingtraffic information even though its of no use.

Blocking Operation Based on the Vehicle State:

One of the actions performed above could be to block a requestedapplication. This is illustrated in FIG. 5, where the state of thevehicle is used to determine if an application should be blocked orallowed. This may be useful for a parent wanting to block a teenagerfrom texting while the car is moving.

The user, carrying the portable device, tries to invoke an applicationon the device in step 1 of FIG. 5. In step 2, the device checks if therequested application is a restricted one. If it is not then theapplication is allowed to proceed normally in step 3, else the devicechecks if the vehicle is moving in step 4, for example using theaccelerometer as described previously. If the device determines that thevehicle is not moving then the application is allowed in step 5,otherwise the application is blocked in step 6.

The user may be provided a notice that the requested application isbeing blocked. Alternatively, blocking can happen if the vehicle is instationary state.

Furthermore, instead of just detecting if the vehicle is moving, thestate detected could be more complex, for example, whether the vehicleis moving faster than a specified threshold. The threshold could bedefined based on the speed limit or delta from the speed limit, whereinthe speed limit is determined based on the location of the vehicle.

Another operational state of the vehicle that is useful to detect iswhether the vehicle is stopped at a traffic light. If this state isdetected, it may be useful to continue blocking certain user operations,like texting, even though the vehicle is momentarily not moving. Inorder to detect that the vehicle is stopped at a traffic light, firstly,it is necessary to detect that the vehicle is not moving and then,secondly, using the current location information determine if thevehicle is located close to a traffic light by searching for the closestlight in a geographic database that contains location of traffic lights,and deciding if the distance between the vehicle and the nearest lightis small enough to be considered as waiting at that light.

Using Change in State Detection to Find a Parked Car

The example method of the portable device that can automaticallyremember the parked location of the car (see FIG. 7) and aid the user infinding the parked car is as such:

-   -   1) user with the portable device is outside the car and the        portable device's associated vehicle is in the ‘engine is off’        state or stationary state (step 1 in FIG. 7 and taking periodic        measurement of vibrations that are happening. The device can        wake up, for example, every 30 seconds and take a measurement        for 2 seconds, for example. Inside a vehicle with engine turned        on, the device would see around 26 vibrational events (cycling        through a peak and valley) if the engine is running at 800 RPM        in the 2 seconds whereas outside the car or inside a stopped        car, the number of vibrations are much less.        -   a. The device can decide that if the total vibrations in the            2 seconds number more than a set threshold (e.g. 15 per 2            seconds) then the state of the device is changed to the            ‘engine is on’ state. If it is less than the threshold then            the device can again sleep for sometime without changing its            state.    -   2) The user sits in the car and starts the engine. The portable        device detects (in step 2 FIG. 7) that the number of vibrations        are greater than 15 within 2 seconds and changes its state to        the ‘engine is on’ state (step 3 in FIG. 1).    -   3) The portable device, in ‘engine is on’ state, continues to        periodically measure the number of vibrations to detect if the        engine has stopped.    -   4) Eventually, the user parks the car at a parking lot in a        mall. The portable device counts the number of vibrations within        2 seconds and sees that they are much less than the threshold of        15 (step 4 in FIG. 7) when the engine is turned off. The        portable device uses its GPS system or other location        measurement system to discover the current location of the car        and it remembers this location as the location of the parked car        (in 4 a in FIG. 7). The device now changes its state to the        stopped state (this is same as step 1 in FIG. 7).    -   5) The user walks to the mall, shops and is ready to return to        the car, but has forgotten its location. The user asks the        portable device to give directions to the car. The portable        device recalls the last measured location (4 a in FIG. 7) and        gives the user directions to the car location using GPS. The        direction can be given in many ways including on a lcd screen or        by voice prompts.    -   6) Once the user reaches the car and starts the engine, the        portable device detects that the number of vibrations are        greater than 15 and changes its state to ‘engine is on’ state        (back to step 2 in FIG. 7).    -   7) The above steps will be repeated for future travels.

The portable device uses vibration measurements for two purposes, firstto detect when the car has parked (by detecting when engine is off) sothat a GPS measurement can be taken and also when the car has started(by detecting when engine is on). Without recognizing the transitionfrom an ‘engine is off’ to a ‘engine is on’ state, the portable devicewould not be able to know when to recognize the next parking of the car.

Instead of remembering only one last location, the portable device canremember the last n locations and their time and show them to the userfor review or selection for directions to the selected location.Furthermore, other actions can be taken instead of or in addition toremembering the location, for example, informing the network or a thirdparty upon the detection of a state or a change of state.

The portable device for this and other applications can be a standalonedevice, or it can be combined with some existing device. One choice isto put it in the key fob. Another choice is to combine it with thecellphones. This is particularly attractive since everybody carries acellphone and the user interface is helpful in providing directions backto a parked car. Also many cellphones (smartphones, pdas) come with GPSand some even come with a builtin accelerometer and compass.

As mentioned earlier, instead of using vibrations to detect the statetransition accelerometer can be used to track changes in the velocity byaccumulating changes in acceleration.

Determine the Type of the Vehicle

Certain operations may be desirable to be blocked when the vehicle is acar and moving, but may be allowed in a bus even if it is moving. Thequestion is how to detect the vehicle type as to whether the vehicle isa bus, train, car, airplane or ship. By default one can assume thevehicle is a car unless it can be detected and confirmed that it is adifferent vehicle.

In one embodiment, FIG. 8, illustrates how to determine if the vehicleis a bus and not a car. In step 1, the device takes measurements ofaltitude and lat/long over time. In step 2, the device checks how highthe altitude of the device is when compared to the known altitude at thegiven lat/long. If the average difference is altitude is greater than aspecified threshold then in step 4, the device determines that thevehicle is a bus otherwise, in step 3, it determines that the vehicle isnot a bus. This is possible because the height at which passengers sitin a bus is much higher than the height in a car. Similarly, altitudecan be used to determine if the user is flying in a plane.

Some vehicles (e.g. trucks) may have similar height as buses, and it maynot be directly distinguishable as to whether a bus or a truck is thevehicle. Based on the application and the context, this may not be anissue. If the goal is to determine if the truck or the bus is beingdriven by the user then later methods can help with this goal.

In another embodiment, FIG. 9, illustrates how to determine if thevehicle is a train or not. In step 1, the device takes measurements oflatitude/longitude over time. In step 2, the device checks whether theobserved location points over time, corresponds to known railway tracks.If they do correspond then the device determines that the vehicle is atrain in step 4, otherwise it determines that it is not a train in step3. Similarly, the location data can be used to determine if the user isin a ship by checking the correspondence of the user's travel with knownbodies of water.

Driver Determination Using Kinematics

Sometime we may want to block a requested operation or perform an actiondepending upon whether the user is the driver or not. In one embodiment,illustrated in FIG. 10, such a method is described. In step 1, thedevice takes location and acceleration measurements over time. In step2, the device determines the times at which the vehicle has turned basedon the changes in location points recorded over time. If no turn isdetected so far then the device keeps checking till a turn is observed,at which point, in step 3, the device uses kinematics to determine ifthe changes in forces/acceleration is consistent with the user sittingin the front or back. Similarly, different forces act on the driver sideand passenger side and the recorded acceleration can be used todetermine this.

Alternatively, for determining if the user is sitting in the driver seator the passenger seat, the device can record location data over time andcompare with the know location of roads and lanes to determine if theuser is sitting close to the left side of the lane (i.e driver side) orto the right side of the lane (i.e. passenger side). The minordifferences would not help us readily determine the user's side,however, over time as more data is collected, the confidence level goesup as to the side of the user.

A yet another alternative is to have a location device in the vehicle ata fixed, known location. The user's device can query the vehiclelocation device for its lat/long value and use it to determine itsposition in the car. Alternatively, the user's device can talk to otherusers devices in the car and query for their lat/long. If they respondthen the device can determine its relative position in the car. Ifnobody responds then it is safer to assume that the device belongs thedriver, If some other device responded and the user's device, forexample, is always to the left and front relative to the other deviceand the motion of the car then it can be confidently determined that theuser is a driver.

Automatic Charging for Metered Parking.

Paying for parking can be difficult with the user required to walk to ameter and either use a credit card or insert coins. A novel, method,illustrated in FIG. 11, is proposed to automate proper payment ofparking. The user's portable device monitors when the state of thevehicle changes to ‘engine is off’ state in step 1. Furthermore, it useslocation measurement (e.g. GPS) to discover if the location where theengine was turned off is a parking spot which requires payment in step2. Next it monitors optionally to see if the user's location has changedto detect if the user has left the car in step 3. This can be done bymaking location measurements using GPS or other network means. Anotherway is to use accelerometer to measure changes in acceleration which canbe integrated to discover velocity changes which can be furtherintegrated to discover space displacement.

The portable device will signal to the central parking office, in step4, that the vehicle associated with the portable device has startedparking and a pre-registered account should be charged for parking. Thedevice continues to monitor changes to the state of the vehicle and whenit detects that the state, in step 5, has changed from ‘engine is off’to ‘engine is on state then the device will inform the central parkingoffice wirelessly to stop charging for parking in step 6. There is alsoa possibility to start charging as soon the operational state of vehicleis vehicle is stationary and stop charging as soon as the operationalstate of the vehicle has changed to vehicle is moving state.

Discovering Available Parking Spots

In another embodiment, FIG. 12, describes how detecting the state of thevehicle can help with efficient parking. Users who use this parkingnotification application would be running a specialized software ontheir device or using a web version which will detect, in step 1 in FIG.12, for a change of state of the vehicle from a stationary state to amoving state. The previously described methods to detect the vehiclestates (e.g. using accelerometer) can be used. Once this change of stateis detected, the device will check, in step 2, if the stationarylocation corresponds to a parking space (e.g. a street parking spotwhere parking is allowed at the current time). If it is a match then thedevice will inform, in step 3, all the other interested members, eitherdirectly or indirectly via a central service, that this parking spot isavailable. The algorithm could be sophisticated enough to limit numberof notifications per available parking spot and restrict notificationonly for members that are close enough to the parking spot. Othermembers who are interested in being informed about available space, canspecify that they want to see in a list the available spaces within acertain distance (e.g. 500 ft radius) and that were vacated recently(e.g. last 2 minutes). It is important to allow these criteria becauseyou do not want the members seeking open parking space to drive to alocation only to have it filled by a non-member. Limiting the time anddistance to travel to the open space increases the likelihood ofacquiring the space before a non-member does. Other options includeshowing the parking spots on a map with the elapsed time since theybecame available. Also one can just list in sorted order the availablespaces based on a function of distance and elapsed time; as new spacesbecome available they can be added to the list. Alternatively, as newspaces become available, the user can be alerted via a notice sent tothe device. As more people sign up for service the more efficient theservice becomes in pointing users to free spaces more quickly. Thisresults in fewer parking spaces going empty in a time period and thusincreasing the utilization of the street parking spaces.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of performing one or more actions on aportable device carried by an individual, comprising: monitoring, atleast one operation indicator transparently to the individual, whereinthe at least one operation indicator is created by an on-board componentof the portable device when the portable device is located inside avehicle; detecting the at least one operation indicator that meets oneor more predetermined criteria; determining one or more operationalstates of the vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria;determining at least one action to be performed on the portable devicecarried by the individual, based at least in part on: i) the one or moreoperational states of the vehicle and ii) at least one previous changein the operational state of the vehicle wherein the at least oneprevious change in the operational state comprises at least one of thefollowing: a change from the vehicle being in a moving state to being alingering state; a change from the vehicle engine being in an on-stateto being in an off-state; a change from the vehicle being in the movingstate to being in a stationary state; a change from the vehicle's speedbeing in a below predetermined speed limit state to being in an abovethe predetermined speed limit state; a change from the vehicle being inthe stationary state to being in the moving state; a change from anengine being in an is off-state to being in an on-state; and a changefrom the engine being in the is off-state to the vehicle being in themoving state; and performing the at least one action on the portabledevice.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the portable device is a keyfob or cell phone.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one ormorepredetermined criteria include at least one of the following: a)pattern recognition models of the at least one operational indicatorwherein the at least one operational indicator is generated at least dueto one or more of the following: operation of the vehicle and movementof the portable device caused by the individual; b) one or morethresholds of the at least one operational indicator wherein the atleast one operational indicator is generated at least due to one or moreof the following: the operation of the vehicle and the movement of theportable device caused by the individual.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more predetermined criteria are based at least on oneor more previously determined operational states.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the determining the one or more actions based on the one ormore operational states of the vehicle comprises: changing a previouslydetermined operational state based on the one or more predeterminedcriteria.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the one ormore operational states of the vehicle further comprises determining atype of the vehicle wherein the type of the vehicle is at least one ofthe following a train and a bus.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein theat least one action is: detecting at least one of the following typeindicators: at least one location point of the portable device over timeand an altitude of the portable device.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the method further comprises: determining a type of the vehicle,wherein the type of the vehicle is one of the following: a taxi; a bus;a carpool; and a train.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the performingthe at least one action when the at least one operational stateindicates that the vehicle is in the moving state further comprises oneof the following: a. disabling usage of the portable device when the atleast the one operational state indicates the vehicle is in the movingstate and the individual operates the portable device; b. disablingentering text when the at least the one operational state indicates thevehicle is in the moving state and the individual operates the portabledevice; c. disabling making voice calls when the at least the oneoperational state indicates the vehicle is in the moving state and theindividual operates the portable device; d. making a connection withanother phone when the at least the one operational state indicates thevehicle is in the moving state and the individual operates the portabledevice; e. making a connection to the known interne address and sendinginformation on the one or more determined operational states.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the determining the one or more operationalstates of the vehicle further comprises: determining a position of theportable device; and determining the one or more operational states ofthe vehicle based on the one or more predetermined criteria and theposition of the portable device.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thedetermining of the position of the portable device comprises:determining the position of the portable device in relation to adriver's seat of the vehicle.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein thedetermining the position of the portable device in relation to adriver's seat of the vehicle comprises: determining that the vehicle isin a moving state and the individual is a driver of the vehicle.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: determiningthat the vehicle is in the moving state and the individual is a driverof the vehicle, wherein the determining is based at least in part on: 1)the one or more operational states of the vehicle, identifying that thevehicle turns a corner, and 2) the one or more predetermined criteria.14. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining the one or moreoperational states of the vehicle further comprises indentifying thatthe individual is a driver of the vehicle.
 15. The method of claim 3,wherein the at least one pattern recognition model comprises: at leastone markov model.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least onepredetermined pattern recognition model comprises: at least one markovmodel generated for an average driver.
 17. The method of claim 14,wherein the at least one operation indicator sequence comprises at leastone of: acceleration, forces, velocity, location, and time.
 18. Themethod of claim 1 wherein at least one operation state of the one ormore operational states of the vehicle matches at least in partcharacteristics associated with at least one of the followingconditions: the vehicle is moving; the vehicle's movement is lingering;the vehicle's speed is below the predetermined speed limit; thevehicle's speed is above the predetermined speed limit; the vehicle'sacceleration direction and level; the vehicle turns a corner; thevehicle is not moving; the vehicle is stationary; the individual isinside the vehicle; the individual is outside the vehicle; the vehicle'sengine is off; and the vehicle's engine is on.
 19. The method of claim24, wherein the at least one sensor is an accelerometer.
 20. The methodof claim 1 wherein the at least one operation indicator comprises atleast one of: i) a measurement of at least one force acting on thevehicle measured at predetermined sampling periods, ii) a measurement ofvibration of the vehicle; iii) a measurement of at least one kinematicquantity of rotation measured at predetermined sampling periods, iv) ameasurement of at least one acceleration of the portable device measuredat predetermined sampling periods in one or more directions, v) arepresentation of at least one noise indicator generated by the movingvehicle at predetermined sampling periods, and vi) a representation ofat least one wireless signal associated with the vehicle.
 21. The methodof claim 1 wherein the at least one operation indicator is created by anaccelerometer located on the portable device.
 22. The method of claim 1wherein the one or more predetermined criteria comprise at least one of:i) the at least one operation indicator matches at least one patternrecognition model, indicating that the vehicle is moving; ii) the atleast one operation indicator matches at least one pattern recognitionmodel, indicating that the vehicle movement is lingering; iii) the atleast one operation indicator matches a vibration threshold, indicatingthe engine is off; iv) the at least one operation indicator matches avibration threshold, indicating the engine is on; vi) the at least oneoperation indicator matches one or more thresholds, indicating thevehicle is moving; vii) the at least one operation indicator matches oneor more thresholds, indicating the vehicle is stationary; viii) the atleast one operation indicator matches at least one pattern recognitionmodel that is associated with a driver of the vehicle; and ix) the atleast one operation indicator matches at least one pattern recognitionmodel that is associated with the individual that is walking.
 23. Anapparatus for monitoring a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: at leastone sensor generating at least one operation indicator; at least oneoperation indicator monitor configured to monitor one or more operationindicators; at least one vehicle operation state detector configured to:a) detect when the one or more operation indicators meet one or morepredetermined criteria, wherein the one or more predetermined criteriacorrespond to characteristics identifying at least one operational stateof the vehicle, b) select the one or more predetermined criteria thatthe one or more operation indicators meet, and c) assign the at leastone operational state of the vehicle upon selection of the at least onepredetermined criteria; at least one action determiner operable toselect one or more actions based on the at least one operational stateof the vehicle; and action performer operable to perform one or moreactions based on the at least one operational state of the vehicle;whereby the one or more operating indicators are generated without anyconnection to other apparatuses in the vehicle and outside the vehicle.24. The method of claim 8, the method further comprises: determiningthat the individual is a driver based at least in part on at least oneof the following: a) the type of the vehicle and b) acceleration,forces, velocity, location, and time.
 25. The method of claim 7, themethod further comprises: determining that the individual is a driver ofthe vehicle based at least in part on acceleration, forces, velocity,the at least one location point, and time.